First things first, I have — or rather, Rafflecopter has — drawn a winner for my media kit giveaway, and the lucky lady is Crystal from The Happy Type! As a longtime reader of her blog, I could not be more excited to work with her.

I recapped October on Sunday, and you’re welcome to have a read of how that went. It wasn’t great, but it didn’t end too badly. Now, this November thing. November means:

It’s my birthday. This Saturday, actually. Expect a birthday wishlist on Wednesday and probably a Twitter meltdown on Saturday, let’s be real, I suck at keeping it together on my birthday. I have zero plans at the moment and don’t foresee making any, which I have mixed feelings about. I haven’t celebrated my birthday in years but I feel like I should do something special. I’m going to be leaving my early twenties behind, after all. That’s kind of… horrifying, a little bit. Not really. I don’t even know if I’m capable of bastardizing Taylor Swift’s 22 for twenty-five. Twenty-five. Holy shit. Moving on…

It’s been six months since I moved country. I already blogged about this, but the thought keeps popping into my head at random intervals. Shouldn’t I have it together by now? Obviously that’s a really toxic thing to think, and I’m constantly torn between wanting to do better really badly, and freaking out that if it hasn’t happened yet, it’s never going to. But I’m also trying to think about what works and what doesn’t in terms of self-care, because I’ve had six months to pick up and drop habits, good and bad, and flying by the seat of my pants is clearly not an approach that works, so I need to take a good look at myself and my choices and make better ones in the aspects of my life that I have control over. Because I do have some control over some aspects of my life, like what I eat and what I do with my time and whether I consume enough entertainment to keep myself from combusting in a cloud of work-related overwhelm.

One thing I’ve noticed recently is I spent so many years avoiding music because it was hard for me to focus on fiction writing with it playing that I forgot to bring my iPod to London with me, and I haven’t necessarily missed it — I would have had to bring my speakers along as well — but I’ve missed music. I interact with it differently now that the bulk of my work doesn’t involve words, and the work that does involve words doesn’t rely on cadence and pacing — not the way fiction does, anyway. iTunes is right there, and when I do listen to music, it lifts me up. There are very few things that have that effect on me, and none that have it so quickly and unobtrusively, so I need to use that knowledge. Gymnastics is also good for me, and it’s something that I can easily watch while I eat. It’s not quite the TV show I wanted to pick up — just one! I can’t choose! — but it’s a start.

It’s NaNoWriMo. It’s also NaBloPoMo, which I’m actually doing, or attempting to — this post was supposed to go up yesterday. But there’s something incredibly comforting and motivating about a whole lot of people doing the exact same thing at the same time, and I’ve actually been writing on a notebook every day since November 1. I don’t know if it’s really helping yet, but it’s got potential. It’s helped before. It’s all about taking a moment — ten, twenty minutes — before I dive into the Internet to assess my situation and talk out my concerns and keep track of, like I said above, what’s working and what isn’t.

I’ve also found myself, since I started journaling, thinking about blog posts as stories — or thinking of stories as potential blog posts. All these little tidbits of my life I didn’t know how to talk about, how to share, are taking shape in my head, and it’s weird because this kind of thing usually happens when I see somebody else do what I want to do and do it well, but it’s happening spontaneously.

It’s getting dark really early, and I need daylight to stay sane. Apparently. Or something. What’s tripping me up, besides the fact that I’m still dragging a 5 AM to 5 PM sleep schedule and I generally wake up with my anxiety beating down on my motivation, is I’ve got used to and found comfort in going to Starbucks right after I get up — at 5 PM — and staying there till closing, while it’s dark outside, and I could potentially still do this — work at home and come to Starbucks in the evening — but in order to do that, I need to be able to turn the heating on in the morning, and there’s a minor issue there that requires me to talk to my landlady and like, assert myself and I suck at this so much that I’m very much considering spending daylight time at Starbucks and going back home around 6 PM when she’s back and turns the heating on. But I shouldn’t be spending so much time (read: money) at Starbucks anyway. Dilemma!

So that’s where I’m at as November begins. I think my main goal for the week is to work on time management. Again. Two weeks ago I didn’t have any way to make money, and right now I’ve got a few ways but I keep getting bogged down in thinking that I have so much to do and not enough time to do it, which is a lie because I really waste a ton of it. Focusing is hard, but it’s not impossible, and for the first time in a while I feel mildly capable of blocking time and taking breaks and just being tidier about it all. Music and NaNoWriMo are here to help me along! So I’m going to try.

Linking up with Weekly Wishes as always! Here’s to a great birthday month. I especially can’t wait for my blog redesign to come together! It’s out of my hands at the moment, though, so I get to focus on work — writing, design — and my photography backlog. So many pictures to edit and share!

As part of my attempt to share more of my work on this blog, I wanted to show you guys some of my print design work. The bulk of it is media kits for bloggers, and it is genuinely one of my favorite things to design.

If you’re a blogger or an influencer of some kind, you probably already know how convenient having a media kit is; it’s so much easier to offer up or attach a media kit than list your stats over and over, not to mention it’s cleaner, harder to lose, and more professional — and it gives you the chance to show off your blog and branding and really catch people’s eyes.

But today I am not just showing you a sampling of my media kit design work — I am also giving away a 2-page custom media kit design, valued at £75, to one of my readers!

I’m lucky to be joined by a few lovely ladies who have graciously agreed to co-host this giveaway and introduce their readers to my work. In return, I would love if you guys checked out their blogs as well. It’s a very diverse group, which I love because it shows that media kits aren’t for just one particular type of blogger or social media influencer. Bloggers small and big can benefit from one, and I am really really excited to punctuate that sentence with one of the most recent media packs I created — my longest, my first horizontal one, and my first for someone whose blog isn’t any more important than her other social media channels.

It is open until October 31st at midnight, and open worldwide to anyone who has a blog or social media influence of some kind. Basically, if you could use a media kit, this giveaway is open to you. Winner will be emailed within 48 hours of the giveaway ending, and will have 28 days to claim the prize before another winner is drawn.

Good luck! And if it’s something else you’re in need of — a blog design, some category buttons, a logo — feel free to head over to my Etsy shop and use the code YAYFALL to take 10% off your entire order!

Last month, I got a beautiful tunic from Joe Browns. It is gorgeous, and I gave them my size, and it came in… and it was massive, and labeled “one size.” Well, one size on non-stretchy linen means I looked like I was wearing a sack. One made with nice linen fabric, but a sack nonetheless!

Still, I don’t back out of a product review, and I had a shoot planned with the lovely Christine Cherry, so I decided to wear the tunic — but maybe pin it to my body a bit. With bobby pins, because I’m resourceful and it wasn’t supposed to bear too much movement.

I have to say I absolutely love what I did.

It turns out it makes an incredible, amazing, ridiculously freaking gorgeous flapper dress! And I can’t sew it in place because I don’t have a sewing machine, and it would be a terrible idea to get one when I’m not settled yet with a long-term lease and I’m moving in the middle of August again to begin with. But if I could — oh, I so would.

(Full outfit post coming next week!)

Since I can’t have the sewing machine, though, the lovely people at Hobby Craft told me I could give one away to my readers! Since I know plenty of you love to sew, many for your shops or blogs, I thought that was a truly fantastic idea.

The sewing machine Hobby Craft is giving away is a Janome Sew Mini 140M. It only weighs 2.5 kg, so it’s perfect if you don’t have a lot of space or don’t want to haul a huge dead weight every time you need to put it up on a table. (Not speaking from experience or anything…) It has a range of preset stitching options, widths and lengths, including zigzag stitching.

Giveaway is open to UK residents only, but I know there are a few of you around and hey — I’m a freelance photographer and model, so what better way to network with potential clients than offer them a free sewing machine in exchange for following and sharing my work? Never say I’m not transparent. And hey, if you’re in London, maybe you could fix up that tunic for me. ;)

If you need something heavier duty, or simply don’t win this sewing machine giveaway, I recommend having a look at all the sewing machines Hobby Craft carries — there’s something for everyone there, and an awesome range of prices to fit any pocket!

If you haven’t already taken a detour from my sidebar to this shop, you are in for a treat. Today I would like to show you some of the ridiculously cool work Melodie Telliez, the jewelry maker behind Slinky Links, creates.

The above are only some of my favorite things from her Etsy shop, where she sells handmade jewelry pieces made from reclaimed leather. From bridal to statement, each piece is unique — and uniquely Slinky Links. I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like it anywhere else, and I am amazed by the way Melodie is able to mold her designs to styles as far ranging from each other as classy from Halloweenesque or country from medieval (like Game of Thrones? You just hit the jackpot), all contributing to a cohesive whole.

When I had the chance to pick something from her shop, though, I went for neither elegant nor bold: I went for cute. She has these adorable cat brooches that I just fell in love with as soon as I saw them. I rarely wear brooches, though, so I asked if she might be able to create a similar design in earring form — and she came up with these:

Are they the cutest thing or what? Even my mom thinks they’re adorable, and my mom is rarely impressed by jewelry.

Melodie was kind enough to send me two pairs of these gorgeous black cat studs, one to keep and one to give away to my readers! If you want your own pair, all you need to do is fill out the entries on the Rafflecopter below, and you may just win it!

Happy Tuesday! Today I am showcasing a handmade jewelry shop on Etsy that I’ve loved since I found it a few months back. It’s called Crafted Locally, and it carries the work of the lovely Debora L. Griffin, as well as select pieces made by local artists from her community.

Debora specializes in wirework and metalwork, and her wide array of earrings is breathtaking. Just have a look at her categories! In the above graphic and the gift card below, I singled out some of my absolute favorite pieces from her shop:

Don’t you just love them and want them real bad? Because I do. I also want some of her bead work earrings, which are super nice too — but the wirework is just ridiculously beautiful! You’ve got lots to choose from — and you’ll have to if you win the $30 credit to her store Debora is giving away to one of my readers!

I’m seriously so excited to be hosting my very first someone-else’s-stuff giveaway on my blog, and I’m so happy I get to team up with Debora for it. All you have to do is complete the super easy steps on the Rafflecopter below! If you win, you will be contacted by email. The giveaway is open worldwide and will run for two weeks.

This week, I’m posting my handmade finds a little early and renaming them, well, Handmade Finds, so I’m not restricted to posting them on Friday. Turns out there’s a lot of photography link-ups on Friday, did y’all know? and I’m co-hosting one of them this week! So without further ado, here’s a board inspired by sheer nostalgia.

I hope you like these, and if you like me (or my work!), head on over to Angie’s blog today! I am giving away a $75 gift certificate to my graphic design shop on My So-Called Chaos today. With $75 to my shop, you could get a custom blog header or a media kit design, to mention just two options! It’s open worldwide, you’ve got plenty of ways to enter (like following this here blog!) and it’s open until January 6. Don’t miss out!

I want to post a quick update on my goals for September. There are only six days left on the month — whoa — and here I am, still swamped. The thing is, in retrospect, the goals I set for September were a) really vague, b) heavily blog-related and c) clearly influenced by the heat and some serious lack of confidence in my ability to get shit done in a timely manner. That lack of confidence was based on circumstances, half of which still apply, and, well, reality. But one accomplishes a lot more when one feels capable of accomplishing it, at least when ‘one’ is me, and I feel a lot more functional now than I did before the summer heat broke.

The point is, I have accomplished my goals of participating in Travel Tuesday and Blogtember, keeping up with Weekly Wishes and Friday Loves, putting up some videos, and shooting a few outfits for the 30×30 remix challenge (though I haven’t put up the list of garments I picked). I’ve also settled on running my closet cosplay linkup on my own to start with, and I have two showcase posts (with mini interviews and photos I’ve already edited) waiting to be written. That leaves me with goal #7, crafting, arguably the most important thing on the list despite its vagueness.

So I’m revamping my list, and extending it to fall.

Earlier this year, some friends of a friend of a friend launched a site called Challenge Accepted. Challenge Accepted is a web-based productivity tool that structures your to-do list as though your life is a roleplaying game. Tasks are organized into quests which can then be grouped into odysseys. For each task you complete, you gain points that allow you to go up levels and unlock random happenings. On each task, you can set the difficulty level, skills and attributes required, which determines how many points you win for the overall rankings as well as add points to your skill and attribute charts. You can see my profile here, though I admit I’ve been slacking on using the site lately so it’s a bit out of date.

Challenge Accepted also runs a weekly challenge called the Raz Challenge, where one of the site’s pet owls dares you to do something. This week’s Raz Challenge? Set a goal for yourself. I settled on one last week, but I’m not sure how I’m going to set it up on my quest log yet, so I’m going to share it here first:

→ I will be done with all LHP Collection campaign rewards by November 8.

November 8 is my birthday — I’ll be turning 24 — so it’s not a completely random date… not that there would have been anything wrong with that.

→ I will have completed all open product photography and graphic design orders by October 31st.

Revisions/reshoots not included.

→ My graphic design shop will have a full page of listings by October 15.

This should not be that hard given the length of the list of things I want to offer. Plus I have 40 free listings, so I don’t even have to think about listing fees. The goal above will give me examples to show in my listings and my portfolio, too.

→ My portfolio will be up and running by November 30. So will my CraftLaunch store.

If I accomplish all of the above, there will be plenty of listings for customers to find and buy, so this shouldn’t be that horribly difficult. Besides, it’s holiday season. I’m still not sure how to go about achieving this kind of number goal, but I’m giving it a go as per my weekly wish.

On that note but extending the timeframe to winter, I would like to have 1,000 followers on Twitter and 300 on Bloglovin by the end of the year. Is that too ambitious? Not enough? Weigh in, oh wise those of you who have been blogging for longer than a month.

…hey, this blog turned one month old on September 18! Happy blogiversary to me.